PwC launches new carbon reporting guide

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has today launched a new best practice guide designed to help firms report on their carbon emissions in accordance with the government's new Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) legislation.

The CRC is to come into effect from next year and will require around 5,000 UK firms to report on their carbon footprint and enter into a legally binding emissions cap-and-trade scheme.

The new guide from PwC outlines how a fictitious UK-listed technology company, imaginatively titled Typico plc, should report on its greenhouse gas emissions, providing a template for the kinds of strategies, targets, benchmarking and reporting methodologies firms will be required to adopt.

It also provides a format that companies can use for their own carbon reports, as well as an example of a carbon data summary that can be included in annual report and account statements.

Paul Rew, a partner in the Sustainability and Climate Change Assurance division at PwC, said the new guide would help ease the administrative burden placed on firms by imminent mandatory reporting rules.

"Typico plc sets out a flexible template to help companies develop and define good reporting practices for their business," he said. "While there is no one-size fits all solution, there are elements of Typico plc's activities that all companies will recognise when reporting their strategy and performance in managing the impacts of climate change on their business."

The wider adoption of carbon reporting practices will help firms accelerate their emission reduction strategies, according to Alan McGill, partner in the Sustainability and Climate Change Reporting division at PwC.

"Rather than compliance and data reporting alone, forward-looking analysis and statements of the risks and opportunities affecting a business will become an established part of the reporting cycle," he predicted. "This model will support companies' preparations for that by helping them identify the right questions to ask, the right data to measure and report on, resulting in them taking the right actions for their business."

A spokeswoman for PwC confirmed that the guide would be available for free and would be offered alongside consultancy services designed to help firms deploy the carbon reporting best practices.